Horsemeat March

The Horsemeat March of 1876, also known as the Starvation March, was a military expedition led by General George Crook in pursuit of a band of Sioux fleeing General Custer's defeat at the Battle of Little Big Horn. In September, after the battle of Slim Buttes, the Sioux burned the grass behind them, and the American cavalry traveled with reduced rations to allow faster pursuit. As a result, the cavalry had no food for men or horses, and the soldiers eventually had to shoot and eat their horses as they became lame or injured. The Horsemeat March ended in Deadwood, South Dakota. Many of the cavalrymen were said to have gone insane as a result of the march.

Introduction

The Horse Meat March was a grueling military campaign by the United States army during the summer of 1876. General George Crook, who commanded over one thousand cavalry and infantry soldiers together with numerous Native American scouts, led it. The March took place in the Black Hills of the Dakota territories. It came in the wake of the defeat of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, commanded by George Armstrong Custer at Little Big Horn, and preceded the culmination of the great Sioux War of 1876. Sometimes known as the “Mud March” because of the severe rains, and sometimes known as the “Starvation March” because of the lack of food and supplies, Crook’s campaign is most commonly labeled the “Horse Meat March” because of the particular food on which the troops subsisted. Morrow, Stanley J. Gen. Crook's Headquarters in the Field,. 1876. Photograph. Whitewood, South Dakota.^[1]

General George Crook and the Battle of the Little Big Horn

Disputes over the Black Hills in the Dakota Territory came to a high in 1876 between the American Army and the Natives in the area (Lakota, Sioux, Arapaho and Northern Cheyenne). After a short battle in March, The Battle of Powder River, organized by General George Crook and led by Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds, a larger effort was made for a battle later in the spring in order to move the Indians to reservations. Multiple columns of soldiers were made to trap the enemy and prevent escaping. Crook’s troops: the 2nd and 3rd Cavalry and 4th and 9th Infantries, moved north from Fort Fetterman for the battle. However, they encountered the Sioux and Cheyenne, ultimately creating the Battle of the Rosebud, which delayed them to the columns in Dakota. The Battle therefore went on without them. All the senior commanders wanted to reunite their soldiers with Custer’s in order to overwhelm and finally win the battle and overwhelm the Native camps. On June 22 1876, Custer declined the offer of reinforcements in either soldiers or equipment. On June 24, Custer’s troops found shelter on an overlook called Crow’s Nest, around fourteen miles from Little Big Horn River. Here they spotted a herd of ponies. ^[2] This overlook saw onto one of the largest community of Plain Native Americans. This group was called together by Hunkpapa Lakota religious leader Sitting Bull. The group consisted of 1800 warriors, among them were notable warriors Crazy Horse and Gall. To add on, Custer moved forward under the untrue information given by agents that suggested that the region had just over 800 warriors, roughly the same size as the 7th Cavalry Size. ^[3] Custer and the men under his command took up positions on a hill near the Native encampment known as Battle Ridge. General Crook, who had been camped a small distance away, tried to drive off the Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, but failed to take advantage of his position because his troops were running low on ammunition. Under the leadership of Crazy Horse, the Native warriors decimated Custer’s soldiers, forcing a small remnant of his command to defend themselves at a spot now known as Last Stand Hill. Custer and his men were massacred by the combined Sioux and Cheyenne force in what has become known as one of the worst defeats in American military history. Following this battle, the United States increased the size of its army and began a campaign to hunt down the large force of Native warriors that had carried out the massacre of Custer’s troops. ^[4]

The Horse Meat March

Following the Battle of Little Bighorn, most of the Native warriors were not caught for nearly two months. The US army spent much of those two months trying to recruit and train a force capable of fighting the tribes. During this period there was an extreme shortage of rations for the troops, however Crook pushed his troops forward to Black Hills. This march, often called a “starvation march”, caused poor morale among the soldiers and destroyed their fighting capabilities. By September 8, the troops were living off the meat from the Cavalry’s horses. Crook sent a train to bring supplies into Deadwood, a mining town in the Black Hills. He sent a small group of troops to pick up the supplies and carry it back. On the way there the troops ran into the Lakota tribe, in particular, the band of Oglala. Near Slim Buttes, the troops, being led by Captain Anson Mills attacked and the Oglala fought back fiercely. The Battle of Slim Buttes quickly spiraled into one of the biggest battles on the Northern Planes since the Battle of Little Bighorn itself. Crook arrived with the rest of the troops the next day, but the Oglala camp was still much larger. The Battle continued for one more day, until Crook took his starving soldiers out in the hopes of trying to find food. Ultimately, Crook’s regiment captured the Oglala supply of dried meat to last them through the winter, and captured or killed 37 Oglala warriors. On September 13, 1876 the starvation march ended when the troops came in contact with the train carrying their supplies. The US Army did finally find the Lakota to fight and defeat, however the troops were too worn out to go in pursuit of them.

Dr. Clements’ Diary

Bennett A Clements was a Surgeon in the United States Army who, by the late 1860s, had achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In December 1876, Dr Clements filed a report General Crook’s campaign against the Sioux, including the Horse Meat March and the Battle of Slim Buttes. His report, which takes the form of a daily diary of the campaign, describes a difficult time of near starvation. One entry, on August 31st 1876, illustrates the intense difficulties encountered by Crook’s troops: Dr Bennett writes: Long marches in the most frequent of rain-storms, with cold nights and heavy dews, and the prospect of achieving satisfactory results, always so encouraging to the soldier, was not apparent. There were about five and a half days rations of coffee, and less than two days of bread and salt left; the distance to the Black Hills was definitely not known, and the Ree Indian scouts, who alone knew anything of the intervening country, left us at this point to carry dispatches to Fort Lincoln. Under these unfavorable conditions the command moved from its camp directly south on the morning of September 6th, and marched 30 miles over a broken, rolling country, and camped on alkaline water holes, without enough wood to even boil coffee with. On the 7th we again made 30 miles over the same kind of country, and had an equally bad camp. All the litters, nine in number, were in use this day; many horses were abandoned, and men continued to struggle into camp until 10 P.M. On this day the men began to kill abandoned horses for food. The sick and exhausted men of the infantry were carried on pack mules, whose loads were now used up, but only a small part of those applying could be so carried. ^[5]

Conclusion

Dr Clements’ report describes an exhausting trek through the badlands of the Dakota territories, which became lakes of mud in the stormy weather that accompanied the journey. Before the march ended, many of the soldiers were sick and wounded, while others were forced to dismount from their horses and to walk through the mud in order for the horses to be eaten. The march lasted until the middle of September 1876. It was a dismal follow up to the disastrous batter of Little Bighorn, with General Crook, who had been considered the most talented general in the US Army, losing a large percentage of his force to starvation and disease.

UTLEY, Robert Marshall. "The Sioux War of 1876." [Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian, 1866-1891.] Bluecoats and Redskins: The United States Army and the Indian, 1866-1891. London: Cassell, 1975. Print. Greene, Jerome A. "The Battle of Powder River." Battles and Skirmishes of the Great Sioux War: 1876-1877 : The Military View. Norman U.a.: Univ. of Oklahoma, 1993. Print. Robinson, Charles M. "The Great Sioux War." General Crook and the Western Frontier. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 2001. Print.

Morrow, Stanley J. Wounded Being Removed from Field at Slim Buttes. 1876. Photograph. Wyoming Tales and Trails, Slim Buttes.

The contract surgeon, who was on the Horsemeat March and documented his experiences, was Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy.